Tyrese Maxey set a new career high with eight steals and Joel Embiid poured in 30 points to lead the Sixers to a relatively uneventful 113-104 win over the Indiana Pacers.

Here’s what I saw.

Embiid and Maxey > Pacers

With VJ Edgecombe ascending into a lead role in a critical stretch of the second half, this was not exactly the howitzer from Tyrese Maxey that I expected after he was named an All-Star starter for the first time ever. You could have talked me into a 40 or 50-point game coming into the night, given his season and the opponent. But I think he deserves a ton of credit for how he handled the game flow, and the style of game he played reflects his maturation as a player. He got his 29 points, while also dominating the game via his defense, and then ultimately stepped up once it was time for him to carry the offense. A professional, star-level effort from their main man.

And boy, did he ever carry the offense in the fourth quarter. Nurse apparently learned from his staggering mistakes in the first half, pulling Maxey with just under two minutes to play in the third so that he could return to start the final quarter as the undisputed captain. Every action either flowed through him or was designed to set him up, and Maxey’s speed proved too much for a Pacers team offering little resistance in the painted area. A pedestrian game on offense turned into a fairly dominant Maxey night in the blink of an eye,

Even more impressive was Maxey’s thievery off-ball, which was at all-time best levels in a season where steals have been easy for him to come by. I thought this was a pretty brutal showing for him on defense early, with Maxey blowing a few switches and failing to communicate on possessions where the Pacers walked into open shots. But he played with noticably better focus in the second half and had an absolutely relentless pursuit of the ball, which helped earn him some of the easiest transition dunks he’s ever had in his career. Eight steals is just one off the Sixers’ single-game record, a distinction shared by four players and last accomplished by Michael Carter-Williams way back in 2013.

Suffice it to say, this guy is a little better than MCW.

Among other baffling subplots from this game, I have no idea why Joel Embiid’s game fell off a cliff for two quarters after an electric start to the game. The midrange jumper was stuck on automatic in the opening minutes, with Embiid going 5/5 from the field for his first 10 points of the night. Jay Huff is a player you’d expect to give Embiid some problems on the other end of the floor by stretching things out and making him run, but Embiid should be able to dominate him individually.

I think the awesome start convinced Embiid to be a little too jumper heavy against a team lacking girth in the middle. Rather than moving Huff, Jackson, or Tony Bradley around in the painted area, Embiid was mostly content to live and die through the face-up in the middle portion of this game. He is more than skilled enough to make it work, but it left opportunities on the table for further dominance. Didn’t feel like Embiid was particularly jazzed up on the defensive end for this one, either.

That said, it was a typically productive night in which he rebounded the ball well in the second half, which is a big victory in my eyes. Perhaps you could just file this one in the “screwing around” category for Embiid and Maxey, who hit the burners and put this game away at the perfect time. Good enough for me.

VJ Edgecombe only needs second halves

It seems crazy that a rookie can have so much sway on a team with three max contract players, but as VJ Edgecombe goes, so go the Sixers. The first half was mostly a mess for Edgecombe, who smoked free throws and struggled to generate much of anything as a downhill attacker. Tasked with trying to prop up a lineup that had precious little shooting, Edgecombe and Grimes accomplished little of consequence in the first half.

Rather than relegating Edgecombe to spot-up duty for the duration of the second half, the Sixers went the other way, absolutely spamming Edgecombe/Embiid actions for the first half of the third quarter. Using Edgecombe as the nominal point guard, they set up pick-and-rolls on the left side of the floor, allowing Embiid to roll into his favorite spot on the left block with Edgecombe able to get middle and assess his options. There was a clear target in mind: Johnny Furphy was hunted relentlessly to open the quarter, and to the point that Pacers coach Rick Carlisle had to get him out of the game.

But it turned out to be more than a matchup-hunting approach. The Sixers just kept hammering, and Edgecombe kept reacting to how the Pacers flipped the coverage. Overplay him going right? It was time to go left to the baseline, with Edgecombe drawing multiple fouls and scoring a lefty layup that way. Edgecombe did a good job of finding Embiid when he had the advantage as the roller, setting up some short face-up jumpers and post possessions for his running mate. Had he made his free throws, this could have been an explosive night, but Edgecombe struggled to put the Pacers away at the line, which I’m sure he’ll hear about from the coaching staff tomorrow.

Even as the Sixers moved Edgecombe off ball at times, they were just waiting to set him up to attack. The highlight of the night, and perhaps Edgecombe’s season, came from an Embiid off-ball screen that allowed Edgecombe to catch a Maxey pass on the move, with the rookie turning it over and putting Tony Bradley on a poster with a spectacular finish:

The success of the Edgecombe/Embiid pairing paved the way for a Philadelphia comeback win in the second half. Should they have needed it? No. But good on him for summoning this after a brutal opening 24 minutes.

An unserious approach begets unserious results

The Sixers apparently need to be reminded that you are allowed to play well against bad teams. You don’t have to spot them leads, sleepwalk through halves, or play lazy, communication-free defense because the opponent has a bad record or major players who are injured. You are indeed capable of bringing your A-game (or even your B- game) regardless of who happens to be visiting your home arena.

I hope that Nick Nurse figures out a more cohesive staggering plan at some point before the year ends, because some of the lineups the Sixers open and close quarters with are absolutely ridiculous. I can understand a “core four” staggering pattern that leaves Embiid and Maxey on the floor together with Paul George and VJ Edgecombe trusted to carry the rest of the reserves. But when there’s no George to help out, the Sixers absolutely have to stagger Embiid and Maxey to offer help to the rookie. Mercifully, they did so in the second half.

Monday night, Nurse opted to keep a similar sub pattern as if he had George in the lineup, leading the Sixers to open the second quarter with a group of Bona/Walker/Watford/Grimes/Edgecombe. That’s a group that doesn’t have enough shooting for the version of Edgecombe you’re hoping to get in year three, let alone this year. They were almost completely incapable of generating separation or quality shots in half-court offense, carried only by some terrific individual defensive plays from Bona. Sending a lineup out that has to win via transition offense is a recipe for disaster that Nurse couldn’t avoid against Indiana.

It doesn’t help his cause that many of their role players are either playing poorly or fit clunkily with the full group. Quentin Grimes has skewed more bad than good lately, which has robbed them of one of their few bench shooters at a time when they’re putting more questionable marksmen back in the lineup, from Watford to Oubre to Walker. Oubre had a good individual game for the Sixers, taking it to Johnny Furphy on drives early in the game, but the Pacers were content to drift away from him and play middle help for most of the night, crowding the likes of Maxey and Embiid. This isn’t a team with a lot of shooting, and the Pacers played disciplined enough defense to fill the right gaps and guide the ball toward their preferred spots.

Still, it’s not like Nurse is stuck with the exact options he is using. I know both men have struggled this year, but they could try Justin Edwards and Jared McCain within these groupings in an effort to juice the offense. Pulling McCain out of a potential G-League appearance in Indiana just so he could sit on the bench all night is a baffling decision, a move that accomplished nothing in terms of building his confidence and robbed him of further opportunity to play on Monday night.

Other notes

— If Jabari Walker could shoot with any reliability he would be an indispensible rotation player on this team or any other in the NBA. He does so many little things well, from timing on traps to swiping when bigs bring rebounds down to simply playing hard. But teams are absolutely begging him to shoot threes and sagging off him to compress Philadelphia’s spacing, so it’s tough to find the middle ground he works in.